Monday, 25 February 2013

Halcyon River Knees

They had another episode of the Halcyon River diaries on over the weekend. Fantastic. Charlie Hamilton James and his camera get us completely absorbed in the beautiful, wonderful, touching and tragic life of the river.

The most amazing sequence was the two lady kingfishers (halcyons) fighting over the male. They fought low over the river, trying to drown each other. It was awful, and about to get worse. As their fight took them along the river bank, suddenly, with a terrifying pounce, a creature leapt out of the undergrowth and carried one of them off in its jaws.

It was a mink. I have never seen one before. And what a predator it is.

It was a moment of pure horror.

The serpent is still in the garden, and nature is still "red in tooth and claw with ravine". But not for much longer, thank God.

Jackie came for supper on Sunday. My curry was a bit of a fail this time, so the Captain and I had it on Saturday and we had a Cooks Moussaka instead. It was very good. We followed it with cheese, fruit, coffee and cake. And laughed a lot.

Very calm Channel today - grey and cold, with a line of blue along its horizon.

Audrey and I plan to be out on the work tomorrow.

I have been brooding about the possibility of knee operations - dread, dread - assuming that I am eligible for them. The arthritic state of the rest of me might preclude it.

However, IF I am to have them, I have been wondering about customised knee joints. Its just that there doesn't seem to be a day goes past now without some dreadful episode of random violence...

You can't run for it when you have arthritis. So I am wondering about having the Boadicea knee joint fitted - knees that swords will spring out of if anyone should try to mug me.

Then there is the golfing knee. The suave middle aged gent on the cover of the "Understanding your Knee Operation" brochure is playing a mean game of golf after his op. Nothing in the brochure suggests that he could play golf before. So, should I have that kind of knee fitted?